Tribe shoots arrows at aid flight By Jonathan Charles BBC News, Andaman Islands Tribals on Car Nicobar island The island group is home to a number of tribal peoples An Indian helicopter dropping food and water over the remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands has been attacked by tribesmen using bows and arrows. There were fears that the endangered tribal groups had been wiped out when massive waves struck their islands. But the authorities say the attack is a sign that they have survived. More than 6,000 people there are confirmed as either dead or missing, but thousands of others are still unaccounted for. The Indian coastguard helicopter was flying low over Sentinel Island to drop aid when it came under attack. A senior police officer said the crew were not hurt and the authorities are taking it as a sign that the tribes have not been wiped out by the earthquake and sea surges as many had feared. The Andaman and Nicobar archipelago is home to several tribes, some extremely isolated. Officials believe they survived the devastation by using age-old early warning systems. They might have run to high ground for safety after noticing changes in the behaviour of birds and marine wildlife. Scientists are examining the possibility to see whether it can be used to predict earth tremors in future. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4144405.stm
I had heard about those tribes and were wondering whether they had survived or not. As for the animal early warning system I was suggesting that earlier. It seems to me if its good enough for stone age tribes it should work for us. I'm just curious how early of a warning could they give and if we could tie in when the animals start acting up to modern communications to get the word out fast.
Unfortunately for them, bows and arrows are not going to cut it! I guess their too stupid to realize when someone is trying to help them or they don't want any help. I guess these are some of the few remaining tribes untouched by the rest of the world who continue to exist in isolation.
These are stone age tribes. If Texas got devestated by a huge tsunami and suddenly big huge hovering flying saucers started appearing I bet there would be some people who would take potshots at them with rifles.
i was just reading about these tribes (the Sentinelese) earlier this week and i find their story to be absolutely fascinating. until the past 15-20 years, they had absolutely no contact with the outside world. in fact, they still have relative little contact with the world today. the indian government doesnt allow anyone to visit the island where these people live. in the past, even when the indian government has wanted to make contact with the Sentinelese, the results were always the same. the sentinelese are hostile to outside contact and any attempts at making contact always ends with them shooting their bows and arrows at the visitors. heres some more info on these people, from the following site: http://www.andaman.org/book/reprints/goodheart/rep-goodheart.htm North Sentinel Island is not located in one of those parts of the world that are famous for having been "discovered" - the Caribbean, say, or the South Pacific. The Andaman Islands, though rarely visited until the nineteenth century, have been known to Western civilization for much longer. ....... In the spring of 1974, North Sentinel was visited by a film crew that was shooting a documentary titled Man in Search of Man, along with a few anthropologists, some armed policemen, and a photographer for National Geographic. In the words of one of the scientists, their plan was to "win the natives' friendship by friendly gestures and plenty of gifts." As the team's motorized dinghy made its way through the reefs toward shore, some natives emerged from the woods. The anthropologists made friendly gestures. The Sentinelese responded with a hail of arrows. The dinghy proceeded to a landing-spot out of arrow range, where the policemen, dressed in padded armor, disembarked and laid gifts on the sand: a miniature plastic automobile, some coconuts, a tethered live pig, a child's doll, and some aluminum cookware. Then they returned to the dinghy and waited to observe the natives' reaction to the gifts. The natives' reaction was to fire more arrows, one of which hit the film director in the left thigh. The man who had shot the film director was observed laughing proudly and walking toward the shade of a tree, where he sat down. Other natives were observed spearing the pig and the doll and burying them in the sand. They did, however, take the cookware and the coconuts with evident delight. ....... Unlike the mainland Indians, the black-skinned Andamanese were of Negrito stock, and they lived as hunter-gatherers, subsisting mainly on fruits, tubers, fish, crabs, honey, wild pigs, and the eggs of turtles and seagulls. They were so small as to be almost pygmies: adult males often measured several inches under five feet. The islanders wore no clothing, and few ornaments; neither sex troubled to cover its genitals. Most astonishingly, they had never learned to make fire, counting instead on the occasional lightning strike and then preserving embers carefully in hollowed-out trees. heres some of the the other tribes that make up these islands: http://www.andaman.org/book/chapter8/text8.htm
I saw a PBS special about human migration out of Africa and apparently the Bushmen genetically are the oldest living branch of humanity with the closest related being Australian Aborigines. The theory goes that there was an early migration out of Africa that got all the way to Australia where isolated they managed to survive. Those others who settled along the way were wiped out by later migrations. The theory goes that the first migration went along the coast from the Middle East around Indian and down the Indonesian archipelago to Australia. I would be curious to see if any anthropologist and geneticist have been able to test any of the people living in Andaman and Nichobar to see if they are closely related to the Bushmen and Aborigines and might be remnant populations from that first migration.
This just strikes me as funny. Shooting arrows at a helicopter is tountamount to Mr. Burns "thrashing" someone to bits. I can see the guys in the helicopter saying "what in the hell? Hey Jerry, are they shooting arrows at us? Well, I guess the little pygmies are OK. Awwww, isn't that cute? They're getting mad. Let's get a little closer and see if we can get them to scatter like we just stepped on their antbed."
as a good new story, australia has raised the bar for helping out the tsumami victims Aid agencies welcome $1b aid package Aid agencies have welcomed the Federal Government's $1 billion aid package to tsunami affected Asia but are calling for a moratorium on debt. The package includes money for reconstruction and rehabilitation, and for interest-free loans for up to 40 years. Oxfam policy director James Ensor says other rich nations should follow Australia's lead. But he says it is critical they provide debt relief and trade concessions "So that countries are in a position to maximise their chances of recovery from the tsunami". World Vision spokesman Toby Hall agrees, but is also pleased with the package. "Australia and its people and Government now is probably one of the most generous nations in the world in this particular instance," he said. He says the Australian Government is really showing the rest of the world what it should be doing to help. The Federal Opposition has also cautiously welcomed the aid package but says its detail needs to be released. Labor's foreign affairs spokesman, Kevin Rudd, says that so far, the Government's response to the tsunami disaster has been appropriate. Mr Rudd says Indonesia's reconstruction will require a large scale, bipartisan and bilateral response, and the Opposition would like to see the aid program's fine print before fully supporting it. "We want to see the detail first, that is a responsible course of action for us to take," Mr Rudd said. But the aid package has received strong support from Greens leader Bob Brown. "The Government has to be congratulated for the size of this aid announcement," he said. Senator Brown says additional aid will also be required for other nations apart from Indonesia. Print Email
i read on the website listed in my previous post that the people of the andaman islands have a genetic mutation on the Y chromosome connecting them to african populations and suggesting a migration to the islands 50-60 thousand years ago. another genetic mutation that i thought was interesting: The Andamanese hold a little-known world record: they have the highest normal body temperature of any human population. Some Onge are known to have maintained normal body temperatures of 38°C (100.5°F) while feeling perfectly well and healthy. Sickle-cell anemia is a genetically inherited disease widespread in Africa and also known from other tropical and subtropical regions but unknown among Andamanese aborigines. In an evolutionary balance act between two evils, the disease provides a measure of defense against malaria. The Andamanese themselves enjoy a certain degree of immunity from that scourge of humanity but they can be carriers, i.e. they can pass it on. Since sickle-cell anemia is unknown among Andamanese, the suspicion has arisen that the "permanent fever" might be some sort of alternative defense mechanism against malaria
